in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me
by Pencilwalla
Summary: after their duel, nasch and yuuma find their way home. spoilers through 142. sharkbait.


notes: sharkbait. spoilers thru 142. credit to kiryume for designing the xyz monster and for helping me with the magic card.

_(i do not know what it is about you that closes  
and opens;only something in me understands  
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)_

"Hope attacks Black Ray Lancer!"

"What are you doing, Yuuma?" Nasch's voice carries over the crash of Hope's attack. He was panicking. "You'll lose!"

"I activate the Magic Card Overlaid Souls!" Yuuma has to cover his face with his arm then, to shield himself from the force. "Hope's attack is doubled!"

At that moment, the click of Hope's attack points going up is the sweetest sound Yuuma has ever heard. The difference is only a hundred points, but that is alright; both he and Nasch are down to their last hundred lifepoints anyway.

Across the field, Yuuma sees Nasch brace himself.

"Overlaid Souls' effect! In exchange for raising Hope's attack, I take the same damage my opponent takes!"

"But —"

Hope's attack cuts Nasch off, throwing him hard onto the ground, and the kickback slams Yuuma down, too. There is a loud beep as the words flashes between them on the AR.

DRAW, they read, and Yuuma sighs in relief. "I told you it would be okay," he mumbles, and then he blacks out.

Six of the stars have gone out.

That is what Nasch sees when he wakes, half-buried in the coarse pink sand of Barian World. The sky has cleared so that it is dark again, indigo and deep, and his constellation is gone. Only Benetnasch, trailing behind, remains.

The empty space where the others burned is like the empty space in Nasch's heart. He doesn't move, even though he's in pain, even though the world might be ending around them. They are not with him anymore, and with them has gone all his power, all his drive, all his feeling. He watches his lonely star shine fruitlessly, trying to light the whole sky by itself.

A hand brushes the sand off his face.

"Shark?"

Yuuma traces the new scar on Nasch's face. It's closed, but it stings faintly under Yuuma's touch.

"Are you okay?"

"Why are you here?" The merge must have been undone — Nasch has no memory of using the Code, which means Yuuma did, and Yuuma wouldn't have left them as they were, smashed together on a course of destruction — and so Yuuma is in the wrong place. Barian World is hostile to fragile humans.

Yuuma shrugs. He's smiling, though, and he looks pristine despite their battle — the Key hanging around his neck gleams, his clothes are no longer torn, the smudged bruises on his face have healed. He looks like nothing bad has ever happened to him; Nasch wishes that it were true. Fighting him hurt so much more than it should have. Hurting him was painful in ways that Nasch had not anticipated.

Love, it seemed, could not be stamped out of him as easily as humanity was.

"I just am, I guess." Yuuma's hands keep wandering, from his face to his crown down his neck across the armor on his chest, and Nasch can feel the warmth on his skin. It summons squashed desires up in him, until he melts back into flesh, until the sand atop him is much heavier on his weak human form.

Yuuma's touch is soft. Nasch holds his tongue for a few moments longer, just to have this moment for himself, and then he speaks.

"You can't stay here. It's not safe."

"How do we get out?"

Nasch concentrates. There, in the energy of the world around, is a disturbance, a crack, a weak point. Earth, he thinks, all blue and white and lovely, far beyond his reach. Yet another thing he's abandoned.

"I'll guide you," he says, and he doesn't stop Yuuma from helping him up, even though he doesn't need it. He can walk. He's only winded. He's only tired.

His chest hurts with every step.

Nasch doesn't think about it as he reluctantly pushes Yuuma's shoulder away. Yuuma pouts at him and snatches his hand back as they begin to walk. His star is blue overhead, like a beacon, but ever so often the pain flares and the starlight flickers.

Shark doesn't get cold. At least, he says he doesn't get cold, and Yuuma never sees him shiver when they lie down to sleep. There's no day or night in Barian World, so they stop whenever Yuuma gets tired — or so Shark _says_.

Yuuma wraps himself in Shark's cape — it's red and it smells like Shark and it keeps the nightmares away — and watches Shark lie down a few feet away. He always changes back into his purple Barian form before he sleeps. It looks impenetrable, but for the scar across his face.

But he can't shake the sense that something is wrong.

Twice now he's seen Nasch stumble over nothing. Sometimes his mouth curls with pain and then uncurls when Yuuma turns to look at him. And he doesn't shiver when he lies down on the ground to rest, but lately it feels like he's stopped them earlier, even though Yuuma thinks he could have walked more.

Yesterday, while Yuuma pretended to sleep, he watched Nasch lay a hand over the crest hanging around his neck. The hand trembled.

"Shark?"

"What?"

"Can you come sleep next to me?"

Yuuma closes his eyes when he hears the scuffling, and then the scraping of stone on stone as Shark lies down beside him. His body is warmer than a human's; Yuuma rolls into his side in pursuit of warmth.

Shark's arm slides up over his shoulders.

"Hey, Shark?"

"Yeah?"

Yuuma feels Shark's arm tighten around him.

"What are you gonna do when we get back to Earth?"

There is a silence that leaves Yuuma cold. He wonders what it means, but the quiet is oppressive and he doesn't know if he can brave it enough to ask.

"I don't know yet," Shark says slowly. "I don't…Just go to sleep."

Yuuma closes his eyes again, but the Barian World is never truly dark, and his worries are icy in his stomach, and even the weight of Shark's arm cannot soothe him. Sleep is a long time in coming.

The light of the portal out of Barian World appears on the horizon after twenty days. The air crackles even from this distance; Nasch thinks they must be two or three days walk away still, but he can clearly feel the hole in the fabric of their — his world like a persistent ringing in his ears.

The relief nearly knocks him down. The pain has been getting steadily worse, and he's starting to have trouble concealing it when he walks. Every sharp twist in his heart steals his breath, weakens his knees, leaves black spots in his vision. He's sure that Yuuma has noticed, from the way Yuuma has started holding onto his elbow when they walk like he might collapse.

But that means in three days Yuuma will be gone. They'll be separated permanently. He'll never see or hear or touch Yuuma, in any body, in any way, ever again.

He tells himself that's the price he's paid. It doesn't make him feel any less miserable.

The three days pass by too quickly. He lets Yuuma curl up beside every night without complaint, and Yuuma talks about all the things they'll do when they get back — the people he wants to see, the food he wants to eat, the duels he wants to have. It's always 'we', and never 'I', and Nasch never corrects him. Let Yuuma have his dreams; Nasch has smashed too many of them as it is.

(Sometimes Yuuma murmurs his name while he's sleeping, soft and unguarded.

Sometimes Nasch whispers Yuuma's name back.)

"We're here!" Yuuma runs the last few meters to the portal in excitement. As it flickers he can catch glimpses of Earth through the hole — Heartland Tower, the ocean, humans beings smiling and walking — and he nearly throws himself through it right then and there.

But at that moment he hears Shark groan, and when Yuuma turns around he sees Shark stagger and then fall to his hands and knees. His head dips, nearly touching the ground, and when he looks up again Yuuma sees that one of his eyes is glowing unhealthy red.

"_Shark!_"

"Go," Shark gasps. He's clutching at his chest, face white. Yuuma reaches for him; he's too warm, like there's fire instead of blood in his veins. "Go, Yuuma."

"I can't! What about you?"

"Never mind me, just go." Shark slumps, and Yuuma has to catch him in his arms. He's too heavy for them to both stand, so Yuuma sits, Shark against his chest, and panics. He has to get Shark through the portal, he think; they'll be able to do something for him, on the other side.

"Don't you want to see your friends again?"

"I want to see them with _you_," Yuuma snaps, and he digs his fingers into Shark's clothes and blinks back tears. He shakes his head. "Come on."

"It's pointless."

"But—"

"I'm dying." Shark rolls over, so that he's just lying with his head on Yuuma's knees, and taps the crest on his chest. His fingers are shaking again. "I used up all my life protecting the others back then…it's over. I can't return with you."

_Back then._ Yuuma bites his lip. _When he used up all his life points to defend their Chaos Overlay Units…his life was also…_

"But…you never said anything…" Yuuma covers Shark's trembling fingers with his own. He presses down until the tremors stop. "What's going to happen to you if I leave you here?"

"My soul is cursed." Shark says it as calmly as he says that Yuuma is an idiot, or that the sky is blue, and Yuuma's heart breaks all over again for him. He wonders what it would take for Shark to absolve himself. "There's nothing for me on Earth, Yuuma."

"I'm not going without you! If you just need more life energy then — then take some of mine —"

"No!" Shark shoves Yuuma's hand off his chest weakly. He is wide-eyed with fear. "Are you _stupid_ — you'd be cutting years off your life —"

"But then you could come back with me?" Yuuma doesn't care about losing his life. He can't bear the thought of Shark dying all along here, his soul going off somewhere in pain, while Yuuma is safe with his family and his friends. Shark's already lost everything; how dare he try and lose Yuuma, too?

"I can't come with you." Shark's glowing eye is starting to fade back to blue. "It's alright, Yuuma. You don't have to save me."

"Shark —"

"I did this to myself." Shark swallows. "This is my punishment, Yuuma."

If he just takes Shark's hand and concentrates, will it work? How does one even give someone else their life? Yuuma wishes that Astral were here, because Astral would come up with something — or Kaito, — or anyone. Shark is still looking at him with sad eyes. He smiles, and it's faint and forced.

"I'm gonna find a way," Yuuma promises. He reaches instinctively for his Extra Deck, for Hope who always comes to his aid. There must be something he can do, he thinks; this deck has always saved him before. It will save him again.

"Yuuma…"

Shark tries to get up then, but he can't, and he falls back against Yuuma's lap with a despairing noise. He closes his eyes while Yuuma flips through his cards aimlessly, waiting for inspiration to strike him. The cards are reassuringly warm under his fingertips, like they're embracing his hands.

"I don't know how long that portal will stay open."

"Shhh."

_The deck is the soul._ Yuuma touches Hope reverently. _Then…if I gave him some of my cards, maybe…? They said I gave Astral my powers when we overlaid, but Shark and I can't…_

But maybe they could. Yuuma draws the top card from his deck. It is the magic card he used to defeat Shark: Overlaid Souls. The card that allowed him to save them both, the card that kept Shark's suffering from being in vain…

"Hey, Shark," Yuuma says. "Can you give me one of your XYZ monsters?"

Shark's brow furrows at him, and he winces as he fumbles at his deck, but he hands one over. Yuuma studies it carefully — it's Black Ray Lancer. He places it on top of Hope, and wonder what he's expecting to happen. This isn't a duel. How does the magic work without the duel? Withouts Astral?

Maybe Shark is right. Maybe he can't be saved…

"Yuuma," Shark croaks. "It's okay. You've done enough for me."

That's wrong, Yuuma thinks. Shark has done so much for him. There's no enough, no cap on what Yuuma will do in return, no limit on Yuuma's love — that's how a bond is supposed to be. That's what Yuuma's been fighting for, all along.

Yuuma will never have done enough, not if Shark still needs him.

"Believe in me, Shark." Yuuma lays Overlaid Souls over Black Ray Lancer and Hope. Then he takes Shark's hand in his. "There's no way I'll leave you behind, ever, okay?"

"…fine," Shark says. "But, Yuuma, you don't have to —"

"I _want_ to." And that must be the key, because Yuuma feels a jolt in the hand with the cards, and they start to glow. His bones are tingling from the force of it, and Yuuma hangs on and says it again. "I want to—"

The Overlay Network forms above their heads then, bright and dark and swirling, and Yuuma's Key fires a blast of light at Hope and Shark's crest fires a dark red slash of light at Black Ray Lancer, and then the cards jump out of Yuuma's fingers into the air, turn into beautiful streaks of color that dance their way into the air, and vanish into the Overlay Network.

There are two beats of silence; Shark's fingers are tight around his.

And then Yuuma feels it. Memories stream into his mind, like a dam in his brain has burst, and he sees everything again — Ryoga as a child pressed to his father's chest, and Nasch on the throne with Merag all in white on one side and Durbe all in silver on the other, and finally Nasch again purple and gold on a mountain somewhere, his eyes glowing, the sky ablaze — and in his lap Shark's expression is awestruck, and Yuuma wonders what of himself Shark is seeing.

Something falls from the Overlay Network like a shooting star and arcs overhead before landing in Yuuma's outstretched hand.

It is a knight, in golden armor with a pitch black lance in hand, and the crest on its chest is a star with too many points, the gem in the center a deep red.

_Numbers 140: Black Hope Lancer,_ Yuuma reads, and he smiles. He hands Shark the card as Shark stares up at him. He looks a little annoyed again, like his old self, and it gives Yuuma courage.

He examines the card. He reads the effect and his eyes goes wide. "What is this?"

"It's for you." Yuuma glances down at his open deck box — unsurprisingly Hope has returned. He supposes the other cards have too; that's the nice thing about XYZ summoning, that the overlaid cards hang around to help out. "With that, you can come back with me, right?"

"If you want me to," Shark says, as he puts the card away. Yuuma knows that that's a yes, coming from Shark, and so he pushes Shark to his feet. He's unsteady, and Yuuma lets him lean on his shoulder; once they're on the other side and people can see them, Shark's pride will make him walk unaided anyway.

He squeezes Shark's shoulder.

"Here we go," Yuuma says, and he takes the first step towards the portal. It flashes; he sees his house. The windows are lit. Perhaps it's dinnertime; perhaps Akari and Baa-chan are waiting for him.

"Here we go," Shark repeats, and he steps forward too.

+++++OMAKE+++++

"What does it do?"

"Huh?"

Kaito sighs. He does that whenever he is being extra-assholey, which is always, and Ryoga rolls his eyes and waits for him to get over himself and explain.

"Yuuma gave you part of his soul in a card. What does it do?"

Ryoga reaches into his deck case and draws Black Hope Lancer. He doesn't actually let Kaito touch it — he is uncomfortable with everyone touching it, considering it is literally keeping him alive — but he holds it up so Kaito can read the text.

**Number 140 - Black Hope Lancer**

_4 level 4 monsters. _

_This card can also be summoned using number 39 or number 101 as XYZ material. The XYZ material attached to those monsters are now this one's._

_This monster's summon cannot be negated. While this card is on the field, no card effects can be activated except this card, and cards face-up on the field get their effects negated. This card gains attack equal to it's overlay units x 2000. Once per turn, you can detach one overlay unit from this card: halve your lifepoints and destroy all other cards on the field. If this card attacks your opponent directly, whether you reduce their lifepoints to 0 or not, you win the duel._

_ATK ?/ DEF ?_

Kaito narrows his brows. "Is this legal?"

"I don't know. Haven't used it yet." Ryoga slides it back into his deck. He raises his eyebrows at Kaito. "You wanna find out?"


End file.
